Day-of-the-week indicating mechanism

ABSTRACT

A Days-of-The-Week Indicating Mechanism for a timepiece wherein a day disc is provided, divided into two portions by a boundary line extending along a substantially spiral path along said day disk, each of said day disk portions being of a different color and being transparent or semitransparent. A radially extending window opening is provided in a calendar window of the dial plate, said boundary line being positioned so that the days of the week are indicated by the position of said boundary line in said window.

United States Patent l I I i 1 Inventor Tatsuro Ahhano Suwa-shi, Japan Appl. No. 883,048 Filed Dec. 8, I969 Patented Aug. 10, 197i Assignee Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosha Priority Dec. 30, 1968 Japan 43/96.533

DAY-OF-THE-WEEK INDICATING MECHANISM 5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl ..58/5, 58/58, 58/125 8 Int. Cl .r G04b 19/24 Field otSearch 58/l, 2, 46, 58, I25 B [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,226,926 l/l966 Kilburg 58/425 3,472,018 l0/l969 Papworth 58/5 FOREIGN PATENTS 322,449 ll/l934 ltaly 58/5 Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Edith C. Simmons Attorney-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman and Kaplan ABSTRACT: A Days-of-The-Week indicating Mechanism for a timepiece wherein a day disc is provided, divided into two portions by a boundary line extending along a substantially spiral path along said day disk, each of said day disk portions being of a different color and being transparent or semitransparent. A radially extending window opening is provided in a calendar window of the dial plate, said boundary line being positioned so that the days of the week are indicated by the position of said boundary line in said window.

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Patented Aug. 10, 1971 3,597,912

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 F p /ok Akr F/ G 2 PRIOR A RT Patented Aug. 10, 1971 I 3,597,912

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 SAT wayi g"? THU FRI MON

" SAT Patented Aug. 10, 1971 3 Sheets-Shoat 5 DAY-OF-TIIE-WEEK INDICATING MECHANISM BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plane view of a conventional days-of-the-week indicating mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a plane view of the disk of the days-of-the-week (hereinafter referred to a day disk) in said mechanism shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a plane view of the first embodiment of a dial according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a plane view of the day disk in said embodiment shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a plane view of the second embodiment of a dial plate according to the invention.

FIG. 6 is a plane view of the day disk in said embodiment shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a plane view of the third embodiment of a dial plate according to the invention.

FIGS. 8 and 9 is the day disk and the date dial in said embodiment shown in FIG. 7 respectively.

FIG. 10 is a plane view of the fourth embodiment of a dial plate according to the invention.

FIG. II is a plane view of the day disk in said embodiment shown in FIG. I0.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a days-of-the-week indicating mechanism for a timepiece which is novel as compared with the conventional arrangements.

In a conventional days-of-the-week indicating mechanism, the day disk 1 is divided into 7 or 14 segments and the days of the week are shown thereon in one or two languages such as English and Japanese so that the days can be seen through the calendar window 4 of the dial plate 3. In this mechanism, the days of the week is judged by reading a character. Sensuous judgment of the days of the week cannot be done and a plan cannot be drawn up considering both after and before the indicated day.

On the other hand, the present invention will be disclosed hereinafter by some embodiments.

In the first embodiment as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the day disk is divided into seven segments and then, for example, it is so constructed that a portion A and a portion B have different colors respectively; the boundary line 5 between portion A and portion B moves across the window 6 and corresponds to the characters 7 arranged by said window. In this case, the boundary line segments 5 may form circular arcs or straight line like the boundary line I0 of FIG. 6. Otherwise it may be a spiral boundary line spread over the whole day disk so as to change perfectly continuously.

With this mechanism, the days of the week can be found sensuously by taking a glance of the-boundary line through the calendar window, and further by taking a good look at it, the correct day of the week can be read. In addition, it is easy to design a plan by measuring before and after the day of the week with the eyes. It is suggested that a cycle of seven days for a week is very convenient to such an indication.

Further portion A and portion B in the day disk may have various combinations of colors. If the boundary line forms a circular arc, the following advantages can be obtained. Namely, even if the boundary line is shifted in the direction of circumference of the disk to a small extent, the correct day of the week will be shown at the indicia corresponding to said day of the week. Then, when the day is changing, the hook shaped characters thereon; similarly various combinations can be ob tamed In the positions of the window frame, characters or colors on a day disk. Further it can be also applied to any practical use without characters on a dial plate.

In the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9, the transparent day disk 8 is separated into a transparent portion and a semitransparent portion in the same way as in the first embodiment. In this embodiment day and date can be shown together through the same window by putting the day disk 8 on the date dial 9 so that it is possible to find sensuously by the proportion of the colors that a weekend is coming.

FUrthermore in the fourth embodiment shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, each day of the week is divided into two by the different colors C and D (E, F only on Sunday). If the day disk is sent forward in every twelve hours intermittently or otherwise is rotated constantly, it can be easily found whether it is the morning or the afternoon of the very day by the color C (E only on Sunday) or D (F only on Sunday) viewed through the window. This is very convenient to the handssetting of a timepiece.

As it will be understood from the description above, the present invention provides many advantages and good marketability.

Iclaim:

l. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism for a timepiece comprising a rotatable day disc formed with two portions defined by a boundary line extending along said day disc in a substantially spiral path, said day disc portions being of different colors and being transparent or semitransparent; a dial plate positioned in said timepiece over said day disc and formed with a radially extending calendar opening therethrough, said calendar opening and boundary line being positioned relative to each other so that a portion of said boundary line is visible in said calendar window, the radial position of said portion of said boundary line being representative of the day of the week.

2. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 1, wherein said dial plate bears indicia indicative of the days of the week adjacent said calendar opening and aligned for registration with the various positions of said boundary line as said day disc is rotated.

3. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim I, wherein said substantially spiral boundary line is formed from a plurality of segments, each segment being radially displaced an incremental distance from the next adjacent segments, each of said segments being associated with a different day of the week.

4. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 3, wherein each of said segments of said boundary line defines a substantially pie-shaped region in at least one of said day disc portions, each of said pie-shaped regions being divided by a radially extending boundary line into two parts of different colors to provide an indication of AM and PM.

5. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim I, including a date dial having a plurality of indicia aligned in an annular region thereof, representing the days of the month, said annular region being positioned in registration with said calendar window, said clay disc being positioned over said date dial whereby day of the week and date may be displayed through a common calendar window. 

1. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism for a timepiece comprising a rotatable day disc formed with two portions defined by a boundary line extending along said day disc in a substantially spiral path, said day disc portions being of different colors and being transparent or semi-transparent, a dial plate positioned in said timepiece over said day disc and formed with a radially-extending calendar opening therethrough, said calendar opening and boundary line being positioned relative to each other so that a portion of said boundary line is visible in said calendar window, the radial position of said portion of said boundary line being representative of the day of the week.
 2. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 1, wherein said dial plate bears indicia indicative of the days of the week adjacent said calendar opening and aligned for registration with the various positions of said boundary line as said day disc is rotated.
 3. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 1, wherein said substantially spiral boundary line is formed from a plurality of segments, each segment being radially displaced an incremental distance from the next adjacent segments, each of said segments being associated with a different day of the week.
 4. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 3, wherein each of said segments of said boundary line defines a substantially pie-shaped region in at least one of said day disc portions, each of said pie-shaped regions being divided by a radially extending boundary line into two parts of different colors to provide an indication of AM and PM.
 5. A days-of-the-week indicating mechanism as recited in claim 1, including a date dial having a plurality of indicia aligned in an annular region thereof, representing the days of the month, said annular region being positioned in registration with said calendar window, said day disc being positioned over said date dial whereby day of the week and date may be displayed through a common calendar window. 